Movie review: Looper ****

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt. Paul Dano
Director: Rian Johnson
Rated: R
Showing: Speciality Cinema week of Friday, October5 - Fri-Sat 2:30pm, 9:15 pm; Sunday 1:30pm, 7:30pm; Mon-Wed 2:30pm, 8:30pm; Thursday 2:30pm, 9:15pm. For more information call 292-2135.
Tickets: Buy tickets online
Runtime: 118 minutes
Sci-fi/action

Looper's heady blend of time travel, gritty action and jot of romance is such a thrilling and cerebral mindbender that moviegoers are likely to gather outside the theater afterward to hash out details of its intricately constructed universe.

Not that that's a bad thing.

When so much of what Hollywood churns out is almost instantly forgettable, it says a lot about a film when viewers want to take time to argue, ponder and puzzle over it.

This futuristic saga is directed with narrative complexity and visual panache by Rian Johnson, who made 2005's Brick and 2008's The Brothers Bloom, two wonderfully distinctive, but under-appreciated, indies.

Looper stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe, a specialized assassin well remunerated by a shadowy crime syndicate, who sends people they want killed back in time 30 years for waiting "loopers" to dispose of them without leaving a trace.

The tale loops back and forth three decades between the future (2074) and the present (2044), when time travel has not yet been invented. Where it becomes most complicated is when the loop is closed - or when a looper is confronted by the older version of himself and must execute him.

Gordon-Levitt's older counterpart is played by Bruce Willis. And because the two bear virtually no physical resemblance, Gordon-Levitt's subtly handsome face is altered via prosthetic make-up to look like a younger version of Willis. While sometimes the facial re-configuring - particularly the eyes and mouth changes - can be distracting, Gordon-Levitt's performance deftly approximates Willis' mannerisms, expressions and vocal patterns.

Looper essentially unfolds in two acts, with the first part establishing a seedy dystopian universe and the mayhem within it, and the second act taking place in a simpler environment that focuses on younger Joe (Gordon-Levitt) and Sara (Emily Blunt), a taciturn woman Joe meets as he skulks about her Kansas farmhouse. This segment also explores the connection Joe establishes with Sara's five-year-old son Cid (Pierce Gagnon), who could grow up to be a key player in the world of loopers.

In the latter section, the audience becomes more emotionally invested as multi-dimensional characters reveal their complex motivations. Some scenes in this precisely constructed saga have elements of Blade Runner, Terminator, The Bad Seed and The Omen, though mostly this is a humanistic drama, a deeply ethical tale about the lengths to which people will go to save those they love.